Bock Tasting..... yeah, about that......

Well, the magical day arrived yesterday. I had waited patiently for weeks to have a nice cold Bock that I had brewed all by myself. It was my first lager, would I be victorious or would I crash and burn? Right now it looks like I am starting to slide down the crash and burn route, I am trying to correct my slide and pull it out, but only time will tell.

So here is what happened, Bock Tasting Day had come and I was all ready to crack open one of those frosty delights. My buddy Dinker happened to stop in yesterday, so I thought perfect I'll get two taste reviews on this beer. I went into my "lagering room" and pulled out two bottles. It was about 40 F in there so they were all ready nice and frosty. I grabbed two glasses and I popped the top to hear the very slightest, faintest of a hiss. Uh oh. Maybe no carbonation? So I did a rough pour and just poured the beer directly into the glass without slanting the glass. OK, there is a little life to the beer, it did produce some bubbles, but they quickly dissipated. Yep, damn it flat beer.

So here is what I think happened. After lagering for 4 weeks at roughly 40 F, I transferred the beer and bottled it. (See previous bottling blog). Everything went well, as I transferred it the beer was still lively and producing CO2 and foamy. So I finished bottling and where did I put the finished bottles? Yep, you guessed it, right back into that damn cold "lagering room". So I think that the stress of bottling plus the fact that the room got below 40 F a couple of nights shocked the yeast and may have killed them, leaving me with a flat beer. However, I do have hope. My plan of action is to move all of the bottles out of the room and place them in the downstairs where it is a nice 65 - 70 F. My hope is that all of the yeast have not died and that the gentle warming for a week will re-energize them and they will finish carbonating the beer. So that is my plan and I have scheduled a second Bock tasting for this coming weekend. So I will wait and see how it turns out.

On another note, the beer was delicious. It was a nice nut brown color with some reddish tints/highlights and tasted perfectly true to the style. The only flaw was the absence of carbonation.